EE 4G-Enabled Fibreglass Cows To Power Glastonbury Wi-Fi

Steve McCaskill is editor of TechWeekEurope and ChannelBiz. He joined
as a reporter in 2011 and covers all areas of IT, with a particular interest in telecommunications, mobile and networking, along with sports technology.

These ‘Moobile’ hotspots have been pained by the artist behind the festival’s steel drum bins, Hank, and are based on the Worthy Farm’s famous dairy cows, which occupy the site when it isn’t being used for the festival.

“It’s not the first cow I’ve ever painted but it’s certainly the most high-tech,” says Hank. “We’ve loved bringing these 4G beasts to life and I think they look brilliant. My team and I have even named them: Dolly, Daisy and Molly seemed the perfect fit to me.”

EE Glastonbury Wi-Fi

The hotspots will be active from 10am on Thursday until 10pm on Sunday with the hope that poor network reception won’t prevent festival-goers from sharing pictures, messages and videos. The network is accessible to any Wi-Fi compatible device and customers of any mobile operator.

“Staying connected has become an essential part of any festival-goers experience and we are thrilled to be back supporting Glastonbury Festival, helping to ensure those on site have the best possible experience,” adds Spencer McHugh, brand director at EE. “Worthy Farm’s famous dairy herd are award-winning, much like our superfast 4G network, and we wanted to have some fun this year while providing a much-needed service.”

EE has built the official Glastonbury smartphone application, and will also provide contactless payment facilities at 25 main bars. Since April this year, it has also been offering attendees the chance to purchase an EE Power Bar for their smartphones which can be exchanged for a freshly charged unit as many times as they want throughout the festival.

Orange, which merged with T-Mobile to form EE, created a pair of phone charging wellies in its role as the official communications partner of Glastonbury 2010, while in 2011 it showed off a phone charging t-shirt. Vodafone has also been keen to get in on the act, and released a solar powered charging brolly, which simultaneously boosts phone signal, in 2012.

EE recently announced another major commercial deal, when it agreed to become the first ever official sponsor of the Wembley Stadium in a deal which will also see the operator boost 4G signal at the national stadium.